Dermott Jewell, chief executive of the Consumers' Association of Ireland, told Irish broadcaster RTE that customers should be compensated.

"Customers had a binding contract with Aer Lingus," he said.

Maybe they could honor the tickets if the passengers chip in for the jet fuel.

Foul fossil fuel
National Fuel Gas Distribution Corp. crews have been busy with a smelly problem in about 850 Erie, Pa.-area homes. The gas company says too much of an odoriferous chemical was added to natural gas, prompting hundreds of calls from residents concerned about gas leaks.

The substance, called mercaptan, is added so people can "smell" natural gas, which is odorless and colorless in its natural state.

The utility started getting calls this week and had logged some 850 complaints. By law, the company had to send crews to each home to make sure the problem was just too much mercaptan and not an actual gas leak.

NFG officials say crews did find small leaks at a few homes, but in most cases the extra mercaptan was to blame for the smell.

Snack sacks celebrated
This is taking the you-can't-eat-just-one thing too far: The world's largest collection of used potato chip bags went on display in a German museum this week.

"Snap! Towards the Cultural History of a Snack" at the Hamaland museum in Vreden, northwest Germany, showcases the 2,000-bag collection of local resident Bernd Schikora, impoortalized in the the Guinness Book of World Records.

Potato chips became wildly popular in Germany after World War II when U.S. soldiers arrived carrying the salty snacks, and are now known as "crisps" across the Continent.